"The Night Watchman" (1938, Merrie Melodies)
Director: Charles M.(Chuck)
Jones
Story: Tedd Pierce
Animation: Ken Harris
Voices:: Mel Blanc (as the rat) and Berenice Hanson (as Tommy Cat)
Musical Direction: Carl Stalling
This cartoon marks the official directorial debut of a young Chuck Jones. While it doesn't have the intriguing close-ups and size-comparison scenes that made the Sniffles the mouse cartoons interesting (note: interesting, I didn't say funny) it seems to be symbolic. Chuck Jones, according to his own autobiographies, has said that he felt intimidated by being promoted to director and working on his very own films. It shows in this short, as a little kitten has to replace his sick dad as the protector of a kitchen. The kitten is more than a little overwhelmed, as a pack of gangster rats (a rat pack?) take over the kitchen and push him around. The rats then start playing with their food and having a great old time, they even stage a musical number (a real oldie called "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree"). Tommy (the kitten) is left pretty helpless. After a confrontation with the head rat, Tommy starts to wuss out, but his conscience (literally) gets the best of him, and he goes in and beats up the riff raff rodents.
Pretty basic, when you look at it, it's the old 'little guy against big guy,'' cat against mouse', 'hero against villain' stuff rehashed yet again. But there are some very funny spots, and it's beautifully drawn and animated. For a first try, this is a pretty strong start. A later film at Warner Bros. seems to have been inspired by it, too. Watch "The Night Watchman", then check out the 1941 Bob Clampett film "We, The Animals, Squeak".